Hamming it up

HIGH ON THE HOG The cast of Hogwash gets silly with its audience.

A room full of quiet kids sitting calmly in their seats is the last thing Jason Anfinsen wants to see. Audience participation is the name of the game at performances of Hogwash, the children's improv show Anfinsen created last year currently playing at the Lakeshore Theater.

Good behavior at the hour-long show means shouting out ideas to the cast of receptive—and very patient—actors, who weave suggestions from hypereager kids into the story lines. The actors aren't the only ones taking direction from these audiences of newly minted showbiz whiz kids. Artists create set backdrops and props on stage and musicians play live music based on how the stories unfold. With a focus on classic themes such as overcoming fears and putting aside differences, Hogwash educates while it entertains.

"Kids are such hams, and they love an excuse to yell," says Anfinsen, who launched his theater company, Jerk Alert Productions, with this show geared to kids ages three through 12. "We want to tap into that. And if we can spark an appreciation in the arts by doing so, even better."

Director Emily Dugan hopes that seeing different facets of the creative process will excite the kids. "We get them involved in everything," she says, noting that from the moment they're greeted in the lobby by face painters, kids sense something's different. "They come on stage, pick costumes from a giant heap for the actors to wear. They really get into it. A lot of the time, we wind up with a male hero on a quest for an Xbox who's decked out in a princess dress."

For the actors, it's a chance to hone their skills in front of a tough crowd. "Kids are much more honest than adults," Dugan says. "They won't laugh unless something is really funny to them, and they won't edit their opinions of your work. This is a really high-energy show, and it's completely fueled by the kids."

Anfinsen says the decision to make Jerk Alert's first production a children's show was a strategic one. "If you can pull off a show like this for kids," he says, "you know you can handle an adult crowd." The move paid off—Hogwash was so well-received during its first run last summer that Jerk Alert launched a touring company to visit schools and other kids' groups. Starting in May at the Playground Theater, the company will begin a run of Kitchen Sink, a collective of music, comedy, sketch improv and poetry geared to grown-ups.

Anfinsen founded Jerk Alert to tap into all the creative energy he found around him. In addition to its productions, this group of actors, artists, filmmakers, musicians and writers—whom he describes as "people you'd never want to hire for a typical nine-to-five office job"—offers creative workshops for adults.

Connecting with the audience is paying off for this group keen on dodging a work-a-day existence. "During our last run, one of the kids who came back to see the show a few was the owner of Lakeshore Theater," Anfinsen says. "That's how we scored our current space. We'll go anywhere to survive as artists."

Hogwash is playing at the Lakeshore Theater.